The newish website Maplight won some recognition today from Netsquared. Netsquared's one of those techno social change-o thinktanky sites that does something progressive, but we can't tell what. Fortunately, Maplight's purpose is a bit more concrete. They correlate politicians' donations and votes, showing where someone might be motivated more by money than by duty to the citizens.

Alas, there's nothing too damning that we could find on our local pols. Leland Yee got a lot of money from firefighters and voted in their interests 97% of the time. But was it the money that made him do it? Or was it because SF voters just tend to like firefighters? Same for Jackie Speier, who got lots of money from and usually sided with civil servants; and Mark Leno, who has a close relationship with physicians.

Thomas Oller's the only one who sided against all his donors, which proves -- what, exactly? He's ornery?

Yay, Tapioca Ed! We're counting down the days until he's scheduled to get back! (5 days to go.)

Today's Chronicle runs a story about how Ed Jew's travails have been covered in the Chinese-language local media. Man, we are sorry we didn't study the characters harder in our Mandarin Chinese classes (which -- fame whore alert!! -- we took with a certain elected Newsom city official) because their coverage sounds awesome.

The World Journal reports that the owners of the Good Neighbor Cafe are buying papers every day because of the story: "[It is just like watching a serial soap opera. There is a twist and new development every day." Yes it is! They also said, "Unlike other elected officials, we can always see [Ed Jew] on Irving Street after he was elected." They saw Tapioca Ed in the Sunset? They'd be the only ones.

Another paper, the Ming Pao, says Jew has told them he will not resign, and yet another paper, the Sing Tao, says that Jew's having a grand time in Guangdong visiting his ancestral village. Is he going to try and establish residency in that village next?

Finally, Quickly owners have reported that they're feeling ostracized in the community now and that people are calling them "sinners" for reporting Tapioca Ed's alleged shakedown. Aww, Quickly! We're totally picking up some popcorn chicken and an almond snow for lunch today.

Picture by Chris Hardy, from an earlier Chron article about the local Chinese media.

Gavin Newsom, why won't you just do a Question Time before the Board of Supervisors? Was it not enough to force all those citizens into renting chicken suits and drag all those innocent bloggers out at obscenely early hours on the weekends (read: 10 a.m.), just because you've unilaterally decided you don't like to take unscripted questions? Was it really worth it? Now just look what you've made Question Time originator Chris Daly do!

That's right: if Mohammed won't come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammad -- Supervisor Chris Daly's gone and started the process of putting a new proposition on the ballot for the next election, requiring Gavin Newsom appear for Question Time as a matter of law. Dang! Why not just go ahead and add something requiring Gavin to appear in a chicken suit too, while we're at it?

It's not quite on the ballot yet, though: Daly needs six supervisors to sign off on the measure, and then the voters would have to approve it by a majority at the November election, before the marshals drag Gavin in, kicking and screaming like a toddler. If Gavin even wins reelection, that is. (Ha! He's totally going to win reelection -- even though the Usual Suspects futures market is now showing Tony Hall in the lead gaining (thanks for the clarification, David! We're still new to this futures game.)

Picture by Jim Herd of the Dalys Chris and Jack from the Harvey Milk dinner the other night.

More Carole Migden driving news! The Sacramento Bee (which, we'll admit, we were only perusing to see if there were some more pictures of the whales) has found a woman who's still angry about the time Carole Migden totaled her car back in 1996 (Migden's first year in the State Assembly, and a year before Migden was diagnosed with leukemia). "It's really odd at my age that I just can't get over it," the woman said.

The woman, Teresa Latham, is a tax technician at the State Board of Equalization, and had just paid off her 1990 Dodge Spirit seven months earlier when Migden ran a stop sign by the State Capitol and totaled her car. Latham said that Migden didn't seem concerned at all about the situation, even though the accident caused Latham's air bags to go off. Latham got fair compensation for the car and for her medical injuries, but is still peeved that Migden didn't seem particularly sorry about the event.

Latham ran into Migden a few years later at the Board of Equalization, and Migden told her to smile because it was Friday. Latham responded, "I'd rather you not talk to me. You totaled my car." Oh, we kind of feel bad for Carole Migden now!

Picture of Carole Migden with Bill Clinton.

There's a profile of Phil Ginsburg, the new mayoral chief of staff, in today's Chron. Basically, it's a hard job, Ginsburg took a $75K paycut when he took it, and he was nonplussed when, about one week in, he got stuck dealing with the Ruby Rippey-Tourk/rehab circus. Also, Ginsburg is really into org charts.

Interestingly, though, pretty much everyone admits (or at least doesn't deny) that Gavin is difficult to work with, and praise Ginsburg for "not drinking the Kool-Aid" for the administration. Supervisor Bevan Dufty was brave enough to go on the record and say that when he heard Ginsburg had accepted the position, he called Ginsburg and said, "You didn't ask me, but I would have told you not to take the job." Guess Dufty and Newsom are still fighting, then?

Newsom, for his part, says he's glad he has a chief of staff that has little political experience, saying, "I don't want a political strategist. I want a manager. I'll ... sort of come up with the audacious ideas." We're looking forward to seeing the audacious ideas that Newsom sort of comes up with next!

Picture by Kim Komenich for the Chron.

You know, maybe Tapioca Ed wouldn't have problems with fire if he had running water. Bobagate heats up -- literally!

Matier and Ross report today on some issues regarding yet another house that Ed Jew owns. Ed Jew owns so many houses he didn't even report this one to the Board of Supes! (By the way, who owns this much property in San Francisco? If he were playing Monopoly, Ed could put up a little red hotel.)

Anyways, this latest Ed Jew house is in Laurel Heights. The last tenant in the house killed himself with an OD of muscle relaxants in September 2005. Ed tried to sell it a few months later for $1.19 million, but it didn't move. About two or three months later, in February 2006, someone set it on fire -- apparently an arsonist walked in, dumped gasoline in the living room and den, and lit a match.

Jew then got permits to renovate the house -- but apparently, a homeless guy moved into the portapotty the contractors installed outside, and then one day the portapotty caught on fire too. Neighbors are now convinced the house is haunted.

The Chron is running a bio of Ed Jew today too. He owns about $5 million in property and bought his first piece of land when he was 21. (Only $5 million with 13 houses in San Francisco? That doesn't sound right.)

Picture of Ed Jew's burned out property from the Chron, who got it from Socketsite.com.

Even when Tapioca Ed's out of the country, the news keeps popping up! Here's today's latest Bobagate news.

--So you know what that $40,000 would've bought the Quicklys? A letter from Ed Jew to the Planning Commission to get a business permit, the Examiner says. The Quicklys' rival bubble tea shop Wonderful got a letter from Tapioca Ed and a permit shortly afterwards -- and adding insult to injury, Wonderful didn't have to pony up cash for it either. (The Wonderful building is owned by a friend of Ed's who sits on the SF Redevelopment Agency.) The supervisors contacted by the Examiner all seemed pretty appalled: Aaron Peskin referred to the practice as a "no-no," and Sean Elsbernd said in general, he doesn't do it because it's a conflict of interest when the commission's recommendation comes up to the Board for approval. Chris Daly was, of course, busy burying interns in his family's backyard.

--Speaking of permits and FBI raids, the Chron (running about a day behind the Ex) reports that the pot club in Ed Jew's building is scrambling to get a med marijuana dispensary permit of its own, and that the club was one of the ones raided in 2005 for selling to people without valid medical cards. Jew got a letter from the city saying they needed to get the permits or they'd shut the club down, but there's no evidence he ever complied, or that the city ever followed through. Did he pay himself the $40,000 to go away?

--And the San Mateo Times leaps to defend their hometown boy, finding neighbors in Burlingame who say they see Tapioca Ed around the house all the time. One neighbor said she thought it was weird that he was running for office in San Francisco, but figured, "It's San Francisco. Who knows what kind of laws they have?"

--Oh, and in good news for Jew, the city attorney's given him an extension of time to prove where he lives. He's now got until June 8. He's scheduled to get back into town on June 4. Hey, Ed, wanna pay us $40,000 to run over to your place in the Sunset and turn on all the taps?

Well, it's about time! As the progressives run around in a circle waving their hands around in terror for another week or two until June 2, the more right-leaning folks have decisively made their move! Former supervisor and sometimes lounge singer Tony Hall has filed his paperwork to run for mayor.

Tony Hall's been famously irritated with Gavin Newsom ever since Newsom dumped him off at the Treasure Island Development Association to give his Supervisor's seat away to Sean Elsbernd and the Office of Emergency Services office to Annemarie Conroy, and then had him fired after the two of them got in a fight over Newsom's lack of commitment to the island and Newsom's accusations of Hall's financial improprieties. Hey Tony, it could've been worse: Gavin might have tried to make a play on your wife!

In the aftermath of that exploded friendship, Tony Hall demanded his Board of Supervisors seat back (to no avail), filed a legal claim against the city for his firing, and has now settled on the strategy of a blunt-talking race for the mayor's office instead (Care not Cash hasn't helped anyone, crime is up, middle class families can't afford to live here anymore, Newsom's been a disaster, he can't be trusted, we need real leadership, etc).

Is there going to be a squeeze play on Newsom from the right and the left in this race? That might be really interesting to watch -- if, of course, the left could get its act together enough to actually pick someone to start the squeezing. C'mon guys, Tony can't do it alone!

The Examiner's on Bobagate! They've now found out Ed Jew, through his father, rents a building to a pot club, at 1545 Ocean. Hope those cannabis users have water.

Look at all these properties the Jew family owns too! 13 in San Francisco, 1 in Burlingame, and 4 in Arizona. Arizona? Is he running for supervisor there too?

In other property-related news, it turns out Tapioca Ed has also evicted an African immigrant couple's hot dog business from one of his buildings, over a weird subleasing transaction with a man who claimed to be Ed Jew's cousin. According to the couple, Jew was very distracted with the District 4 election at the time all this was happening and promised them everything was fine, but then evicted them at Christmas, about a month after the election. "He's a supervisor," said the wife. "He should stand up for me." Well, ma'am, do you own a bubble tea shop?

Picture of Ed Jew's pot shop by Cindy Chew, from the Examiner.

Starting your weekend on Thursday always sounds good to us. SFist has just the ticket, literally. Why not check out the coolest bay area politician that never was-- seriously, the second sentence in the wikipedia entry on him is "He is sexy". We’re giving away 2 pairs of tickets to “In The Grip Of Official Treason” Tour: An Evening With Jello Biafra (spoken word). Tonight at Great American Music Hall (sorry, you’ve gotta be 21 and older). We’ll pick winners around 4 pm and let you know.

And the hits keep on coming! Now the Chron's reporting that Ed Jew's been told he has five (5) days to prove that he lives in San Francisco, through tax records or a driver's license or cable bills or utility bills or any other similar documentation. Fog City Journal has copies (.pdf) of the documents sent by the City Attorney's office if you want to see.

As you've probably all heard, either Ed Jew never showers or washes his dishes, or there's not really any water at the residency he has listed with the Board of Supervisors. If Ed Jew doesn't shower, he probably doesn't watch cable or get his garbage picked up either, huh? In response, Jew (or "Tapioca Ed," as commenter kwillets suggests we call him from here on out) first says his and his father's water privacy rights were invaded when the PUC told reporters the house hadn't used much water (to which the City responded that water records are public), and then asked for an extension since he's out of the country until June 4.

Tapioca Ed's lawyer says he encouraged Jew to leave the country, basically since the guy wouldn't shut up to the media, and that they told the FBI about the trip and the FBI didn't say he couldn't go. The tickets for the trip were purchased on May 1. We'll see if that guy ever comes back!

Picture of one of the Quicklys in question, from the Examiner.

Esther Hwang picked a bad day for a press conference -- normally, the media would be all over the former Willie Brown secretary turned cheesecake model turned San Francisco Law School student discussing the $1 million lawsuit she's filed against the SFPD for alleged brutality against her outside a North Beach bar -- but with everyone distracted by Ed Jew's flight from the law, Carole Migden's cancer-related bad driving, and in a city that now expects out of its mayoral girlfriends underage drinking, sordid affairs with best friends' wives, and/or misjudged blog commentary, Ms. Hwang's press conference seemed like a quaint trip in the San Francisco wayback machine to the last century.

Hwang claims that she was outside the North Beach bar Dolce last week, celebrating the end of her law school finals and waiting for her boyfriend when she saw some police officers. She said, in a flirty voice, "I guess you'll have to tackle me if I try to cross the street," at which point she says the cops, totally unprovoked, grabbed her by the hair, tackled her, and took her into custody. She claims she was targeted because of her relationship with Willie Brown and says contrary to what the cops say, she was not drunk. She'd only had one pear cider that night. The cop in question, it turns out, has a long record of citizen complaints.

SFist Jim picked up a 30 second snippet of the press conference you can listen to here -- it's worth hearing Esther detail what happened to her "pretty dress," pearl necklace, and fur coat. It's like that scene in Clueless when Cher gets mugged. "But this dress is an Alaia!!!!!"

After the jump (and updated!): More excellent picture by SFist Jim for your perusal. And there's some more spectacular pictures by Luke Thomas on Fog City Journal too.

Picture by SFist Jim. Yes, those pictures behind Hwang are swimsuit pictures of herself.

After poking some good-natured fun at State Senator Carole Migden for her driving mishaps last week, we now feel obliged to tell you guys that she's revealed that she was diagnosed with leukemia 10 years ago and thinks that her medication might have affected her driving that day.

Migden says she was diagnosed in 1997, was unable to find a bone marrow match, but successfully fought off the disease nonetheless, saying she lost her hair but not her will to live. She was proclaimed disease-free in February of this year by her doctors, but is still on chemotherapy drugs.

Migden also says she's going to get neurological testing to make sure everything is okay because she doesn't remember anything about what happened involving the accident last Friday.

Congratulations to Carole Migden for fighting off leukemia and we wish her good health moving forward.

Picture of Migden with Barack Obama and Barbara Boxer.

We cannot get away from the transportation theme around here at Team SFist this week! The latest travel-related news relates to bubble-tea connoisseur Supervisor Ed Jew: despite the pending FBI investigation into his finances, he's left the country for a pre-planned trip to China. (Thanks to the Usual Suspects for the tip!)

Aaron Peskin seems to have moved away from his original "let's see what happens and maybe it's all a big mistake" position, since he's now saying Jew has brought "dishonor" to the Board of Supes. In fact, Peskin was the one who tipped off city officials about the trip in the first place, saying that Jew was a "flight risk." Guess Jew's not going to be voting in favor of Peskin's MUNI proposals. That is, of course, if he ever returns.

A trip to China, huh? Does this have anything to do with the fact that Quickly and bubble tea come from breakaway province Taiwan???? Is it too Asian-American of us to suggest calling this whole thing Bobagate? (We're perfectly happy to stick with the name "Oh No, Ed Jew!" as well.)

Update: Ed's flight left SF around 1 a.m. this morning, and lands in Hong Kong probably in the next few hours. He's traveling with his family, a legislative aide, and his accountant. His accountant? How hard is it to count to $40,000?

We thought Ed Jew's lawyer told him to zip it! But no! Despite the stern mandate the cash-accepting, alleged-bubble-tea-shaking-down Supervisor received from his counsel, Ed Jew's still chatting up the Chron.

His latest defense? That whole thing where his house didn't have water? Jew's response: "Ask yourself this: When it comes down to government run operations, do they ever make mistakes?" It is no good when the elected official's excuse is that government screws up.

Jew's other excuse? Sometimes his father (who pays the bills on the Sunset house) forgets to do things. What does his father forget? Jew replied, "Things." You can just see Ed Jew's lawyer slapping his forehead in despair, can't you?

The rest of the situation isn't looking much better for Jew: not only is he now under investigation by the ethics commission, but an anonymous employee of the Quickly bubble tea store that paid Jew the $40,000 in the first place is contradicting Jew's story that the whole money exchange was payment for a consultant -- the employee says that Jew came to them and said they had permit problems and would need to pay money for them to go away. The owner of the rival bubble tea shop in the Sunset (Wonderful) had no comment. Has it really come to this? The Sunset is having a bubble tea turf war? No wonder no one takes our city seriously.

As Chris Daly noted to the Chron, in the politician's "hierarchy of no-nos," not accepting sacks of money is the ironclad rule number two. (The first, Daly clarified, is "no disappearing interns.") Daly's rule number three is, of course, always dress up to interrupt meetings.

Hey, remember last Friday when State Senator Carole Migden got in a fender bender in Fairfield? It was the same day that Ed Jew's office got raided, so you might have forgotten.

So the original story was that Migden was lost, and took her eyes briefly off the road to make a cell phone call and hit someone's bumper. Not great, but sure, it happens. Well, now KTVU is reporting that the CHP is doing an investigation, because "minutes" before the accident, they received numerous calls that a person in an SUV was driving "erratically and recklessly" and imploring them to do something before the driver killed someone.

To wit: the callers reported seeing someone doing 80 and weaving in between lanes, while simultaneously reading and talking on a cell phone, and cutting people off. The driver was also reported having clipped the center median of the highway.

Guess who it was? Well, as Migden herself is now reported to have yelled at the other driver on the scene, "I'm a senator!" Oh dear. That number again? 1-800-TELL-CHP*.

Ironic picture of Carole Migden at a ceremony with CHP Commissioner Michael Brown, introducing car safety legislation.

*technically, you should call 911 if you see an erratic driver; 1-800-TELL-CHP is for non-emergency car-related matters.

We considered calling this post "And then they came for Jew, and we said nothing," but decided that was in poor taste.

So what's been up with our favorite beleaguered conservative Sunset Supervisor? Well, as everyone knows by now, right as Ross Mirkarimi's Friday art party was starting, Ed Jew's City Hall office was raided by the FBI, based on charges that he'd accepted $40,000 in $100 bills from businessmen seeking to get permits from City Hall.

Supervisor Jew told the press that the businessmen came by, offered him the money, refused a receipt, and he went ahead and took it and put it in a safe, even though he thought the whole thing was weird. Jew also said thought it was a fight between two groups of merchants that he got in the middle of, and that he'd simply referred the businessmen to a political consultant. "I don't know if it violates the law," Jew said.

The next day, we learned that the feds had also searched Jew's Chinatown flower shop, his house in the Sunset, and a house in Burlingame where his family lives. Wait, why does a Supervisor for District 4 live in Burlingame? Neighbors report that no one's lived in Jew's stated SF residence since a burglary and shooting three years ago, but now they see Jew about once a month. Jew's spokesperson says Jew lives there, but that he simply doesn't get home until late at night. The spokesperson wouldn't answer questions about why Jew's wife and child live in Burlingame. (Update! Water service didn't start at the house until 2 months after he was supposed to be there for SF election residency requirements.)

Further complicating things, Jew is also now saying that he did accept the $40K on behalf of his consultant friend, and told the consultant to donate $20K of it to fix up a park on 28th and Lawton. However, Parks and Rec have no record of any such transaction. The consultant is not answering reporters' inquiries about anything.

After all this, Jew has hired a criminal defense lawyer, who's told him to zip it.

Picture off Flickr by dolanh.

According to a press release put out on PR Newswire by her attorney, Dr. Arlene Ackerman has filed suit against the San Francisco Unified School District in San Francisco Superior Court.

She is seeking damages in excess of $172,000 for nonpayment of salary and other compensation, saying that the district breached a written agreement. Dr. Ackerman resigned from her post in June 2006--a resignation forced by the board of education in accordance with a so-called "compatibility clause."

We don't even know where to start with this news item -- we had to read the article like three times before we figured it out. Who has a pro-war protest in San Francisco???

The conservative group Move America Forward showed up at the SF Federal Building to protest Nancy Pelosi's plan to leave Iraq -- with a bunch of chimpanzees they'd rented from a Kern County animal studio. The chimps were supposed to be the "Surrender Monkeys," see?? The chimp is wearing a French beret and waving a white flag -- see?? The protestors ultimately got into the building to talk to Pelosi staffers, but had to leave the chimps outside.

Of course, since we live in San Francisco, the only message we take away from this: adorable monkeys think we need to get out of Iraq.

Picture from the Chron, by Michael Macor. The video clip that CBS 5 has up is well worth watching too -- though we would have personally liked to see a little more of the chimps and a little less of the pro-war people. Here's the rest of the Chron's pictures, and here's a Move America Forward YouTube clip.

Postscript: The Chron has a report up about it too now: apparently Move America Forward was chased out of town by SF Animal Control, because they didn't have permits for the chimps.

Chris Daly's super excited about his Progressive Convention on Saturday June 2, right? He's telling everyone! He even crashed Gavin Newsom's party last Saturday to tell him! June 2! June 2! They're going to nominate a progressive mayoral candidate on June 2!

Soooooo.... guess who else is having a mayoral event that very same day????

In order to qualify Mayor Gavin Newsom for the ballot this coming November, we need your help. We are going to start collecting signatures from San Franciscans on June 2nd. We want to show the City's widespread support of our Mayor and his vision for San Francisco.

We're hosting a volunteer mobilization on June 2nd at 12:30 at our campaign headquarters. Please come join the Mayor and other enthusiastic campaign volunteers as we hit the streets to let people know what this campaign is all about.

Oh no! Scheduling another party on the very same day as your rival's! That is COLD. They're going to have a rally for Newsom on Chris Daly's birthday next!

After the jump: we actually talked to both Chris Daly and the Newsom campaign about this -- plus, all your info for your jam-packed June 2nd schedule.

As far as we know, our mom is NOT behind this movement. But we're totally flattered that blogswarm at Calitics thinks we should run for mayor. We're even more flattered that our CrackBerry Chronicles are "dreaded" by someone other than Gavin Newsom. HIGHlarious!

Sadly, we will have to say "nay" to running for Mayor of San Francisco, but "yay" to resuming our ho-hum life of personal assistant by day, blogger by night, and shameless attention whore all day, every day. Plus, a show-down with Big G would be a War of the Hair, and he spends more money on products than we do.

Since everybody else seems to be doing it, here are our draft picks for SF Mayor: Jackson West, Luke Thomas, and G.W. Schultz at the Bay Guardian.

Special thanks to Bob at Calitics for the shout-out. If you put our name on a fanny pack, we'll be your BFF!

Photo from Calitics

Image replaced to avoid hotlinking. Photo of Tina Turner's cat courtesy of the Institute for Private Dancing Studies.

According to a KCBS report, ballots in next November's election may need to be hand counted. Evidently, under new Federal guidelines, our current machines are no good.

The article cites Elections Director John Arntz as saying that this will cause long delays in getting results and could cost an extra million bucks.

Wow. We paid a ton of cash for those machines, now we can't use them. And are any of the ranked-choice voting positions up in the next election? We'd hate to see those have to be hand-counted. The opportunity for errors is far more likely with that extra complication.

Look at that fresh new picture of your 2007 San Francisco Board of Supervisors! Chris Daly even showed up this time! So what's the gang up to these days? (Besides Chris Daly; he's old news.) Here's an update:

Bottom row, left to right:

Michela Alioto-Pier: Giving medical marijuana stores more time to apply for permits.

Bevan Dufty: Pleading with Chris Daly in vain about moving wi-fi forward.

BoS Pres. Aaron Peskin: Making it more like getting a parking ticket if you're caught boarding a MUNI bus or train without paying.

Ed Jew: Getting his section of the street paved before everyone else's; voting with Chris Daly in a strange alliance against the Hunters Point Redevelopment plan.

Tom Ammiano: Running for the State Assembly. Holding a rally about the bad conditions in local homeless shelters.

After the jump: the team in the back!